From left, Kate Walker as Mandy, James Sanford as Richard, Sheena Foster as Sarah and Adam Harris as James in "Time Stands Still," which runs through May 4 at the Kalamazoo Civic Theatre.James Buck | MLive

KALAMAZOO, MI -- People who witness war are changed by it, regardless of the roles they play.

The script, largely made up of smart and often sophisticated dialogue and little action between four characters, addresses grand questions of journalistic ethics, post-traumatic stress, addiction to intensity, and loving someone when your paths change course.

James and Sarah are “the Sid and Nancy of journalism,” who willfully and compulsively throw themselves into dangerous situations all over the world to get the story and the shot. They’ve been a couple for eight years, but their lives change irrevocably when Sarah nearly gets killed by a roadside bomb while on assignment and is forever scarred by the explosion.

The tension and care between the two are palpable and multilayered in the hands of Adam Harris and Sheena Foster. Harris plays a thoroughly earnest and clever James who makes convincing shifts in character throughout. Foster does a nice job of subtly showing the complexities of her character beneath the hard edge of a seasoned war correspondent. She does this largely with the expressiveness of her face since she’s physically limited by her character’s injuries -- an impressive accomplishment.

The other two characters, Richard, Sarah’s editor and former flame, and his young trophy girlfriend, Mandy Bloom, burst the bubble of James and Sarah’s relationship. James Sanford plays a wise and warm Richard; and Kate Walker’s charming Mandy provides both levity and insightful critique.

Director D. Terry Williams put together a perfect cast. The script provides moments in which each actor needs the right chemistry with every other actor to pull them off, and all four of the actors play beautifully off each other.

The action all takes place in James and Sarah’s Brooklyn apartment, so there’s a single simple and functional set designed by Jack Yates. The actors use it well, though at times blocking seems forced; actors move around while speaking not out of emotional need, but to break up the monotony of their sitting around and talking (no matter how smart and riveting the dialogue, it’s still a lot of talk).

In the end, the play doesn’t resolve how a person returns to normality after living in chaos or how a journalist reconciles making a living off other’s suffering, but it does elegantly show how four fascinating characters navigate such important questions and get on with the work of living.